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The Texas Senate acted swiftly on the agenda set by Gov. Greg Abbott while the House's deliberate pace has kept the fate of many key bills uncertain.

AUSTIN – When Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back to Austin a month ago to complete the unfinished work of the regular legislative session, he set before them an ambitious to-do list laden with red-meat issues to feed the Republican Party’s conservative base.

But as the special enters its final days, the governor’s menu of further constraining labor unions, a pilot program for school vouchers, limiting the restroom options for transgender people and reining in the regulatory reach of local governments was devoured by the Texas Senate, but barely picked over by the House.

So, barring a last-minute frenzy of activity under the dome of the Capitol, the session will end on Wednesday with little to show for lawmakers’ summer in Austin except for visible fissures among Texas’ top Republicans leaders, and among the disparate constituencies that have kept the party in power for a generation.

When the one piece of legislation that absolutely had to pass finally was sent to Abbott’s desk late last week, many lawmakers strongly signaled that it was time to close shop in Austin, regardless of whether every item on the special session agenda was addressed.

“This is the bill he asked for in the exact form he asked for it,” said state Rep. Larry Gonzales, an Austin area Republican, who shepherded the legislation to keep the Texas Medical Board and several related agencies in business. “I anticipate a quick signature, and the people of Texas will know our business to the sunset bill is done and there is no more leverages, as you say, to use against anybody at this point.”

State Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat whose party was largely a bystander in the Republican-dominated Legislature during the special session was more blunt.

“The only must-pass bill is passed,” Moody said. “It’s time for us to go home.”

While many lawmakers of both parties shared that sentiment, it was by no means universal. In the Senate, run by conservative Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick with his fellow Republicans enjoying a 20-11 advantage, Abbott’s agenda was embraced and most items cleared the chamber in short order.

“The only must-pass bill is passed. It’s time for us to go home.”

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso

A conservative bloc in the House, dominated by the 12-member Texas Freedom Caucus, faulted Speaker Joe Straus and his leadership team for following a more deliberate -- and much slower course.

The issue that has most starkly divided the chambers has been the so-called bathroom bill to restrict the use of public restrooms and changing rooms based on a person’s gender at birth. The Senate has passed it and both supporters and opponents of the bill acknowledge that it is destined to die in the House, just like it did during the regular session.

But the leader of the Freedom Caucus said the bathroom bill is not the only measure important to his members that has been forsaken by House leaders.

“We’ve got a lot of the conservative agenda that hasn’t be done,” state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, said late last week. “We are running out of time, but if we don’t get it all done, it won’t be for a lack of time, it will be for a lack of political courage.”

The special session ends Wednesday.

Even though the House has passed versions of bills important to conservatives, including a measure to restrict insurance coverage for so-called elective abortions and imposing more reporting requirement for abortion providers, Schaefer said the chamber’s leaders neglected to advance several others.

State Rep. Phil King, a Weatherford Republican in his 18th year in the House, said it is not unusual for legislation to remain bottled up until the end, whether it is in a special session or a regular session. This year is unique, he said, because of the sharp division not only among legislative leaders, but among the rank-and-file lawmakers.

“If things start rolling here in the last few days, we can get a lot what’s on the call passed,” said King, chairman of the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee. “But if we don’t get a lot of things passed, we probably won’t get much of anything passed.”

When Abbott first signaled that he’d call lawmakers back and outlined what his priorities would be, he put the onus on legislative leaders to plow through the list and move the legislation to his desk.

“If they fail it will not be for a lack of time,” Abbott told reporters in June, “it will be because of a lack of will.”

Because Abbott called the session, his political capital is on the line if the special session ends in a bust, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.

“If they fail it will not be for a lack of time, it will be because of a lack of will.”

Gov. Greg Abbott

“The governor is in a position where he drew a line in the sand and said all 20 of these things had to pass,” Rottinghaus said. “If he doesn’t get the majority of these passed and he walks away, decides not to call another session, then it might make him look weak.”

Rottinghaus said the governor’s power is not guaranteed, and failure in the special session to pass all of the priorities could undercut Abbott’s authority in the future. He said successful governors in the past have been able to use their position to unify the party behind a set of core objectives be instilling a sense of discipline in members.

But Abbott has not been passive during the special session. He’s used his social media platforms and a barrage of rapid-fire press releases to praise the senators and House members by name who pushed his bills over the line in each chamber.

Heading into the final weekend of the session, Abbott’s camp was not ready to concede that time and will are slipping away.

“We’re still optimistic that the governor’s agenda will be addressed,” said press secretary John Wittman.